The 2026 ranking by the “Villes & Villages où il fait bon vivre” association was unveiled on February 1st in the JDD.
Results for Nice:
| Category | 2026 Position | 2025 Position |
| Cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants | 1st | 1st |
| Alpes-Maritimes department | 1st / 163 | — |
| Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants | 4th / 40 | 6th |
| National | 9th / 34,727 | 13th |
Ranking of major French metropolitan areas (over 300,000 inhabitants):
| City | Position (+300k inhab.) | Position (+100k inhab.) | National Position |
| Nice | 1st | 4th | 9th |
| Montpellier | 2nd | 15th | 37th |
| Nantes | 3rd | 21st | 57th |
| Toulouse | 4th | 23rd | 65th |
| Lyon | 5th | 24th | 74th |
| Paris | 6th | 27th | 107th |
| Marseille | 7th | 30th | 124th |
Methodology
The “Villes et Villages où il fait bon vivre” ranking is the largest ranking of municipalities in France. The 2026 edition covers 34,727 municipalities in mainland France.
Each municipality is assessed on 197 criteria across 11 categories: quality of life, safety, healthcare, transport, shops and services, education, environmental protection, local finances and taxes, solidarity, sports and leisure, and real estate appeal.
Nine new criteria were added for this edition, focusing on safety, transport, and healthcare.
All criteria are based on official sources (INSEE, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Ecological Transition, Arcep, European Copernicus program). No self-reported data is used.
The categories are weighted according to their level of importance, as determined by the French population through OpinionWay surveys conducted since 2017.
Sources:
- Association “Villes & Villages où il fait bon vivre”: https://www.villesetvillagesouilfaitbonvivre.com/
- Official methodology: https://www.villesetvillagesouilfaitbonvivre.com/palmares/methodologie
- Le JDD – 2026 Ranking: https://www.lejdd.fr/Societe/top-500-des-villes-et-villages-2026-ou-il-fait-bon-vivre-votre-commune-est-elle-dans-le-classement-166262
